goldendragon1971

I think both have a common base...........West Africa...........

Three African Trickster Myths/Tales -- Primary Style

by
Linda Frederick-Malanson

Contents of Curriculum Unit 98.02.04:

To Guide Entry

INTRODUCTION

In J. F. Bierlein�s book, Parallel Myths, he begins his writing with a poem by Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899). I, too, will begin my curriculum with this poem.

AN INVITATION TO MYTH

____Life is a narrow vale between the cold

____And barren peaks of two eternities.

____We strive in vain to look beyond the heights,

____We cry aloud; the only answer

____Is the echo of our wailing cry.

____From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead

____There comes no word; but in the night of death

____He sees a star, and listening love can hear

____The rustle of a wing.

____These myths were born of hopes, and fears and tears,

____And smiles; and they were touched and colored

____By all there is of joy and grief between

____The rosy dawn of birth and earth�s sad night;

____They clothed even the stars with passion,

____And gave to gods the faults and frailties

____Of the sons of men. In them the winds

____And waves were music, and all the lakes and streams,

____Springs, mountains, woods, and perfumed dells,

____Were haunted by a thousand fairy forms.1

1J.F. Bierlein, Parallel Myths. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994, p.1.
Myth is the earliest form of science. It gives speculation on how the world came into being. Often a myth is something that only begins to work where our own senses end. Myths have persisted for centuries and they continue to fascinate us. Myths are the earliest form of literature which, of course, began as an oral literature.
Some general statements can be made about myths. They are:

1. Myth is a constant among all human beings in all times. The patterns, stories, even details contained in myth are found everywhere and among everyone. This is because myth is a shared heritage of ancestral memories, related consciously from generation to generation. Myth may even be part of the structure of our unconscious mind, possibly encoded in our genes.

____

2. Myth is a telling of events that happened before written history, and of a sense of what is to come. Myth is the thread that holds past, present, and future together.

3. Myth is a unique use of language that describes the realities beyond our five senses. It fills the gap between the images of the unconscious and the language of conscious logic.

4. Myth is the �glue� that holds societies together; it is the basis of identity for communities, tribes, and nations.

____

5. Myth is an essential ingredient in all codes of moral conduct. The rules for living have always derived their legitimacy from their origins in myth and religion.

6. Myth is a pattern of beliefs that give meaning to life. Myth enables individuals and societies to adapt to their respective environments with dignity and value.

My curriculum unit is divided into four one-week periods, one week for each African �trickster� myth and one week for a culmination. It is targeted for second graders, but can be simplified for Kindergarten or extended for sixth grade or, perhaps, beyond.
It is my hope that second graders will understand myths as another reading genre. In addition, I know that my second graders will enjoy this curriculum, as it will be experience-based for which they will take ownership. Children absorb experience-based learning far faster than from any teacher droning on for hours about a particular subject! One must remember the old Chinese proverb!

I hear, and I forget�

I see, and I remember�

I do, and I understand�

This curriculum is integrated into other areas such as mathematics, social studies (geography, customs) and dramatics (Puppetry will be used in this area, too.). Obviously, language arts, especially reading and storytelling, along with writing will weave in their elements.
My main objectives are:

1. To introduce myths (which is usually considered a middle school subject) to my second graders.

2. To develop my second graders� ownership of a subject, in this case, myths/folktales.

3. To develop an experience-based curriculum while integrating it into other curriculum areas.

4. To share my curriculum with other innovative teachers.

5. To make my curriculum unit teacher-friendly.

Trickster tales feature a clever, devious animal or character whose pranks usually cause trouble for another character. In most instances, the trickster goes away gloating and unpunished, though in some tales there is a turnabout, and the trickster falls prey to the mischief he started.
The trickster figure is found all over the world. Sometimes this figure is either creative or subversive. They are mischievous, cunning and humorous and usually have the ability to switch between animal and human form.
Almost all-traditional cultures tell stories featuring specific tricksters. For example, Coyote, Hare, and Raven are the featured tricksters across North America. West African trickster stories star Tortoise, Anansi the Spider, Zomo the Hare (African storytellers brought the latter to America where it was integrated with the native American hare eventually becoming Bre�r Rabbit) or Eshu, the mischievous messenger of the gods in Yoruba (Nigeria) mythology.
In Japan, tricksters are Badger, Tengu. , mischievous trickster spirits, and Kitsune, a shape-shifter. In Europe and South and Central America the trickster can be Fox or Wolf. Norse mythology has Loki as their trickster. Greek mythology has Hermes as theirs. Of course, there are more in other cultures.
What�s the long-lasting appeal of a mischievous hero who so often gets away with causing trouble? One answer is that trickster stories make people laugh, just as practical jokers amuse some people today. A deeper reason for the popularity of tricksters is the way they combine mischief with creativity.
Tricksters figure in the cosmology of many cultures create many features of the natural world as they play their pranks. An example is in the Native American story �Coyote and the Wolves�. In tricking the wolves, Coyote forms constellations in the night sky.
A third reason why trickster stories endure is that they also teach lessons about the futility of vanity, the perils of being na�ve about ways of the world, and the punishments that may come from being greedy. The butts of trickster jokes are often characters who exhibit these traits and who come away wiser after their hard lesson about taking what belongs to another.
Initially, I had planned to write about trickster myths from several different cultures, but the more I read the more I became attracted to African trickster myths. Consequently, I decided to write African trickster myths for my curriculum. However, I must differentiate that many trickster stories are folktales and not myths. To be a myth, a trickster story must be an ancient story that has its roots in the sacred beliefs, or cosmology, of groups of people long ago.
The story must take place in a remote past, in a time before historical time, and the main characters should be deities, semi-deities, or humans with extraordinary power. Myths were the way in which all cultures, before the advent of modern science, sought to explain the origin of the world and of human beings� relationship to it.
Just about every culture has its own �trickster�. For example, in Japan there are Tengu, mischievous trickster spirits. They are half-human, wearing hats and cloaks, and half bird, with wings, claws, and elongated beaks. Hence they got their name, which means, �long nose�.
In Hawaiian mythology there is a trickster named Iwa. It is said he owned a magic paddle that took him from one end of Hawaii to the other in only four strokes. In nearby Polynesia the best known hero and trickster is Maui, who did many things to help humankind. He fished up the islands of Polynesia from the bottom of the sea, using a magic hook.
Maui died while trying to win eternal life for humans from HINE-nui-te-Po. The hero and his friends, the birds, went to the Underworld, where they found the goddess asleep. Warning the birds not to laugh, he crept into her body intending to come out through her mouth. But it was such a funny sight that one bird did laugh. The goddess woke up and squeezed her insides together, crushing Maui. As a result, humans cannot escape from death.
The Aborigines of Australia have their mythological tricksters. Some of these beings cause unpredictable events. More often they change the order of things by stealing wild foods or by leading people to steal, fight and renege upon social obligations.
In the Western Kimberleys of Australia, races of tricksters known as the Nyandjala-Nyandjala and Wurulu-Wurulu are said to wander through the bush looking for mischief, spoiling the caves where their ancestral heroes left painting of themselves by putting their own painting on top.
The Nyandjala-Nyandjala are not mean tricksters although sometimes they are blamed for a bad harvest. However, the Wurulu-Wurulu disrupt by stealing the honey from the wild bees. If someone finds an empty nest, they know the Wurulu-Wurulu have been there first.
In Native America the trickster is at the same time imp and hero. He is the great culture bearer who can make mischief beyond belief becoming clown, then creator, then clown again. The trickster is a rebel against authority and often the breaker of all taboos.
The Coyote is the great trickster in Native America. We hear of him from Alaska to the southern deserts and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Minor animal tricksters in Indian America are Raven, Mink, Rabbit and Blue Jay.
Human or semi-human Native American tricksters are Old Man of the Blackfeet and Crow, Iktome the Sioux Spider Man, Veeho or Vihio of the Cheyenne, Manabozho of the central woodlands and Great Lakes and Whisky Jack of the Cree and Sultaux. Often when a tribe has another trickster of its own, Coyote appears as his comrade/fellow mischief-maker.
Coyote takes on different roles in various Indian tribes. In the plains Coyote�s cleverness alternates with buffoonery, lechery, cheating and his voracious appetite. In the North Pacific Coyote is noted for his cleverness. In all regions,Coyote periodically gets his comeuppance even if it takes several lifetimes.
Coyote also represents the sheerly spontaneous part of life. He reminds us that celebrations of life go on today. He reminds us that there is laughter amid tears, and sadness tucked away in a tale. The Sioux medicine man, Lame Deer, said, �Coyote, Iktome, and all clowns are sacred. They are a necessary part of us. A people who have so much to cry about as Indians do also need their laughter to survive.�2
A myth of the Maidu people of California tells how Wonomi made the first people. Coyote soon grew bored watching their happy, easy life. To make things more interesting, he gave to humankind sickness, sorrow, and death. As luck would have it, the first person to die was Coyote�s own son, bitten by Coyote�s companion, Rattlesnake.
Another trickster in Native America was Nanabozho of the Algonquins of the Northwest Woodlands. He is also known as Nanabush. He lived with his younger brother until the brother was drowned by jealous spirits. In a fit of fury, Nanabozho attacked the murderers until they revealed to him the details of a sacred ceremony, called the Mide. The ceremony was so powerful that the drowned brother was raised from the dead and appointed chief of the Underworld.
2Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, American Indian Myths and Legends. New York: Pantheon, 1984, p.336
The common type of African folktale tells us about a very human-acting animal who uses his wit and cunning to take advantage of bigger and stronger animals. Sometimes this animal will help others, but it will always take care of itself first.
These animal creatures are relatively insignificant and powerless in themselves, but often use their cunning to outwit more powerful beasts such as the lion, the hyena or the elephant. For example, the Zande people of Central Africa tell of Ture the Spider who meets a man-eating monster with a double-sided gong that he uses to trap people.
In this story to gain the monster�s confidence Ture offers to climb into the gong, but leaves his arm sticking out so that the monster is unable to close it. Ture the Spider asks the monster to show him how to do it properly. The creature obliges and Ture slams the gong shut and kills him.
Another myth known over most of Africa is when the trickster Hare decides to get married. However, he is too lazy to do the work to support a wife. He thinks of a better way of getting the work done and goes into the bush with a long rope to look for Hippopotamus.
Hare tells Hippopotamus that he wants to tie this rope to him to see if he can pull him. Hare tells Hippopotamus that when he sees the rope move he is to pull hard. Hippo obviously knows he can out pull Hare, but still agrees.
Then Hare goes to meet Elephant and tells a similar story. Hare then goes to the middle of the rope and jerks it on both sides. Hippo and Elephant begin pulling and their tug-of-war lasts until sundown. Their struggle has then cleared the land, which is the work hare didn�t want to do.

Now Hare can support a wife.
There are many, many African tricksters in myths and folktales. Some of them are:

1. Gizo � the spider trickster of the Hausa tribe of West Africa.He is sometimes a villain to the Hausa . His exploits include numerous adventures that are part of the repertoires of other African tricksters.

2. Anansi/ Kwaku (Uncle) Anansi � the spider, who behaves like a man, of the Ashanti and related Akan peoples of West Africa.

Anansi is the paramount trickster hero of the Ashanti and related Akan peoples. He is also a culture hero and, frequently, a buffoon. He is preoccupied with outfitting the creatures of the field and forest, men and even the deities.
Sometimes he is seen sympathetically, even as wise. He is more often characterized as cunning, predatory, greedy, gluttonous and without scruples. Although he may be admired for his frequent victories over those who are larger and stronger than himself, he does not usually gain moral approval. He can be shrewd, yet he is often stupid or an unwitting clown.

3. Ijapa - the tortoise of the Yoruba tribe of West Africa.

Ijapa is shrewd, sometimes wise, conniving, greedy, indolent, unreliable, ambitious, exhibitionistic, unpredictable, aggressive, generally preposterous, and sometimes stupid. Though he has bad character, his tricks, if ingenious enough, can excite admiration. Ijapa survived in the United States Black folklore as Brother Terrapin.

4. Spider - of the Fiote People of Central Africa.

5. Hare - of the Bantu peoples of the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Zambia.

The Hare is found in stories in most parts of Africa. One southern African story tells how Hare lost humans the chance of immortality. The moon sent Hare to the first people with the message, �Just as the Moon dies and rises again so shall you.� But Hare got the message wrong and told them, �Just as the Moon dies and perishes so shall you�. When the Moon found out what Hare had said, she beat him on the nose with a stick, and since that day Hare�s nose has been split.

6. Jackal - of the Hottentots of the Kalahari Desert and its fringes (Namibia and western Botswana).

7. Jackal - of Somalia.

8. Abunuwas (also called Kibunwasi) - from East Africa and other offshore islands of Zanzibar, Madagascar and Mauritius.

Abunuwas is sometimes also called Kibunwasi. He was originally a celebrated eighth century Arab poet. He is genial, clever, cynical and a flouter of morals. Abunuwas is the human equivalent of the spider, the tortoise and the hare of Africa folklore.

9. Eshu � the mischievous messenger of the gods of theYoruba tribe of southern Nigeria.

Eshu can be unpredictable, violent and a spreader of false rumors. It is said that Eshu is responsible for all quarrels between human beings, and between humans and gods. He is also known as Eleba or Legba in Benin.

Eshu is the most cunning of all the divinities. He is described as a homeless, wandering spirit, who can be found in the market place, at crossroads, and the thresholds of houses. Eshu is always involved whenever there is change and/or transition.
In one myth Eshu gets the sun and the moon to agree to change houses, which reverses the order of the day. In this best-known story Eshu manages to break up a lifelong friendship between the two �men�. The sun and the moon farm adjoining plots of land and they have become such good friends that they are always seen together and even dress alike. Eshu decides to play a trick on them.
Eshu decides to walk down the path, which divides their farms wearing a hat, which is black on one side and white on the other. He puts his pipe at the back of his head and hooks his club over one shoulder so that it hangs down his back. After Eshu passes by, the two friends quarrel about the direction the stranger has taken and the color of his hat. The quarrel becomes so out-of-proportion that the king himself learns of it and calls for the two men.
Each friend accuses the other of lying. Then Eshu comes and tells the kind that neither is a liar but that both are fools. The king sends his men after Eshu and the gods outrun him. Of course, Eshu uses his trickery to save himself�
There are even a great number of entertaining songs about the trickster Eshu. The following is a Yoruba example.

____Eshu slept in the house, but the house was too small for him.

____Eshu slept on the veranda, but the veranda was too small for him.

____Eshu slept in a nut � at last he could stretch himself.

____Eshu walked through a groundnut farm � the tuft of his hair was just visible.

____If it had not been for his huge size, he would not have been seen at all.

____Having thrown a stone yesterday, he kills a bird today.

____Lying down, his head hits the roof.

____Standing up, he cannot see into the cooking pot.

____Eshu turns right into wrong.

____Wrong into right. 3

When the first African Americans brought trickster tales with them to the United States and the Caribbean West Indies they began to make up new trickster tales of their own about the kind of animals they encountered in the American South, Jamaica, the Bahamas and other Caribbean Islands. All of these new tales kept the pattern of the African trickster tales where a resourceful animal hero having human traits used deceit and sly trickery, and sometimes magic, to get what it needed from bigger and strong animals.
Many freed slaves from England returned to Freetown, Sierra Leone after they fought for the British during the Revolutionary War. Some slaves from the Caribbean and those from slave ships captured by the British navy also returned to Sierra Leone. These peoples became known as Sierra Leone Creoles and today they outnumber the Mende and Temne inhabitants who had migrated from central Africa. So some trickster tales that had come originally from Africa, moved to America and the Caribbean and then returned to Africa through the Sierra Leone Creoles.
I chose the following African myths/folk tales:

1. Anansi�s Rescue from the River (spider) which comes from the Ashanti tribe in Ghana.

2. Ijapa and Yanrinbo Swear an Oath (tortoise) which comes from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria.

3Roy Willis, World Mythology. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1993, p.274

3. Zomo the Rabbit (hare), which comes from the Bantu-speaking people from Angola, Gabon, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

My selection offers the children a variety. Anansi�s Rescue from the River is a �pourquoi� story that tells why the moon is always seen in the heavens. Ijapa and Yanrinbo Swear an Oath tells how the tortoise and his wife outwitted a punishment. And Zomo the Rabbit tells how the hare received wisdom.

Suggested Myths/Folktales for Children

African

Gizo � Spider Deals with the Famine
Anansi - Anansi Proves He Is the Oldest
Anansi Owns All Tales That Are Told (A Story, A Story)
Anansi Borrows Money
How Debt Came to Ashanti
The Hat-Shaking Dance
Anansi Plays Dead
Ijapa -How Ijapa, Who Was Short, Became Long
Ijapa Cries for His Horse
Ijapa and the Oba Repair a Roof
Ijapa and the Hot-Water Test
Ijapa Goes to the Osanyin Shrine
Spider of the Fiote � How the Spider Won and Lost Nzambi�s Daughter
Jackal of the Hottentot � The Cloud-Eaters
Jackal of the Somali � The Lion�s Share

West Indian

That One, Anansi
Magic Anansi
Cunnie Anansi Does Some Good
African American
Buh Rabby and Bruh Gator
Buzzard and Wren Have a Race
The Cat and the Rat
Bruh Wolf and Bruh Rabbit Join Together
Bre�r Rabbit and Bre�r Fox

Native American

Coyote, Iktome, and the Rock (White River Sioux)
How Beaver Stole Fire from the Pines (Nez Perce)
How Beaver Stole Fire from the Pines (Nez Perce)
The Raven (Athapascan)
The Bluebird and Coyote (Pima)
Adventures of Great Rabbit (Algonquian)
Turkey Makes the Corn and Coyote Plants It (White Mountain Apache)
Coyote Takes Wafter from the Frog People (Kalapuya)
How the People Got Arrowheads (Shasta)
Coyote Fights a Lump of Pitch (White Mountain Apache)
Glooscap Grants Three Wishes (Algonquian)
Coyote Gets Rich off the White Men (White Mountain Apache)
How to Scare a Bear (Tewa)
How Coyote Got His Cunning (Karok)
Coyote Dances with a Star (Cheyenne)
Japanese � The Teapot Badger
Hawaiian � The Origin of the Volcano

A SUMMARY OF ANANSI�S RESCUE FROM THE RIVER

In this story Anansi has six sons. When each son is born he has already been given a specific name which is translated in the story. Anansi�s sons� names and translations are:

1. Akakai - Able to See Trouble

2. Twa Akwan - Road Builder

3. Hwe Nsuo - Able to Dry Up Rivers

4. Adwafo - The Skinner of Game

5. Toto Abuo - Stone Thrower

6. Da Yi Ya - Lie on the Ground Like a Cushion

As the story continues, Kwaku (Uncle) Anansi goes on a long journey.
Anansi fails to return from this long journey and his family worried.
Fortunately, Akakai (Able to See Trouble) visualizes that Anansi had fallen into a distant river in the middle of a dense jungle.
Twa Akwan (Road Builder) constructs a highway through the jungle so he and his brothers can reach Anansi and help him. They finally arrive at the river.
Hwe Nsuo (Able to Dry Up Rivers) dries up the river. The brothers find a great fish there who had swallowed Anansi.
Adwafo (The Skinner of Game) cuts the fish and saves Anansi.
However, no sooner had Anansi been released than a large hawk swooped out of the sky and caught Anansi in his mouth and soared off with him.
Toto Abuo (The Stone Thrower) threw a roack into the sky and hit the hawk, which released Anansi. Now, unfortunately, Anansi had a long journey down the the earth.
Da Yi Ya (Lie on the Ground Like a Cushion) saves the day by throwing himself on the ground to soften his father�s fall. Consequently, Kwaku Anansi was saved by his six sons and brought home to his village.
However, this does not end the story� One day when Anansi was in the forest, he found a bright and beautiful object, which was called Moon. He had seen nothing like it before. He thought it was the most magnificent object he had ever seen. So Anansi resolved to give it to one of his children.
Anansi sent a message to Nyame, the Sky God, telling him about his discovery. He asked Nyame to come and see the Moon, and to help Anansi award it as a prize to one of his sons � the one who had done the most to rescue him when he was lost in the river.
The Sky God came as Anansi requested and held the Moon. Anansi then sent for his sons. When Anansi�s sons saw the Moon, each of them wanted it. They argued and argued.
The one who had located Anansi in the river in the jungle said he deserved the prize.
The one who had built the road said he deserved it.
The one who had dried up the river said he deserved it.
____________________________________________/3
The one who had cut Anansi out of the fish said he deserved it.
The one who had hit the hawk with the stone said he deserved it.
The one who had cushioned Anansi�s fall to earth said he deserved it.
They argued back and forth, and no one listened to anybody else. The argument went on and one and became a violent squabble.
Nyame the Sky God didn�t know who should have the prize. He listened to the arguments for a long time. Then he became impatient. He got up from where he sat and went back to the sky, taking the Moon along with him.
And that is why the Moon is always seen in the heavens, where Nyame took it, and not on the earth where Anansi found it!2

2Harold Courlander, A Treasury of African Folklore. New York: Marlowe & Company, 1996, p.139-40.